Conferees Approve Aid For Contras

WASHINGTON — A Senate-House conference committee voted Thursday to funnel $27 million to the guerrillas fighting to topple the Nicaraguan government.

Both chambers had approved renewed assistance for the guerrillas, known as contras, but in separate bills.

The Senate on June 6 approved $38 million in nonmilitary aid. A month earlier the Senate had approved the immediate release of $14 million in nonmilitary aid to the guerrillas, but the House killed the idea.

But the visit of Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega to Moscow seeking economic aid, and the fact that all assistance, military or humanitarian, for the contras had been denied, helped change the mood in Congress.

After the Senate approved the $38 million, the House voted June 12 for $27 million in food, clothing, medicine and similar aid for the estimated 15,000 guerrillas, as well as $2 million more in support of a regional peace plan.

Negotiators for the two chambers settled on the House figure Thursday on an uncontested voice vote, attaching the money to the foreign aid bill.